Across – using stitch and thread
How might textile techniques function as a portal to other cultures – and create new forms of awareness?
This question is central to a long-term collaboration between the National Museum and the MiRA Resource Centre for Black, Immigrant and Refugee Women. The project was initiated in 2013, striving to attain increased visibility for the diversity of cultures in Norway and to put emphasis on a variety of cultural expressions – in dialogue with the stories and the collections of the National Museum.
Several employees from the National Museum and MiRA have participated in this project over the last ten years, through visits, language training, workshops, and social gatherings. This extensive collaboration has contributed to building mutual trust and familiarity with the competence and aim of each organization.
Curator Education at the National Museum, Brynhild Slaatto, who has participated in the project since its inauguration, has written an article about the collaboration. Here Slaatto elaborates on valuable experiences, which the museum can use in other contexts.
The article also describes the many different activities which the project has entailed: workshops, meetings, seminars, and an exhibition. Slaatto documents experiences from the collaboration, and describes an actively participatory practice, in which the collaborative participants stand on equal ground – which Slaatto deems to be a valuable object of study in itself.
Slaatto has received counselling from the editor of Museumsforlaget, Maria Veie Sandvik, in the process of writing the article.
The article was published in the journal Museum 3/2023. Read the article here